As the number of devices connected to data networks increase and higher data rates are required, there is a growing need for new technologies enabling higher transmission rates. In this regard, various efforts exist, including technologies that enable transmission rates that may even exceed Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) data rates. For example, the IEEE 802.3 standard defines the (Medium Access Control) MAC interface and physical layer (PHY) for Ethernet connections at 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps data rates over twisted-pair copper cabling. Accordingly, as data rates increase due to widespread deployment of 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps Ethernet switches, fast IP address lookups have become indispensable for core and edge routers. Meanwhile, the number of prefixes in core routers has experienced explosive growth, with the largest border gateway protocol (BGP) routing table seeing, for example, a 40% surge in number of prefixes in a 12-month period. Earlier solutions to IP address lookups were tries-based through software execution to match an IP address progressively a few bits at a time against. In this regard, prefixes were stored in a tree-like data structure to support longest prefix matching (LPM), which chooses the longest prefix among those which matches the given IP address.
In contrast, hash tables offer an attractive method for fast IP lookups because of their constant-time search latencies. Hash tables are also attractive because they can be implemented in regular SRAM rather than TCAM. SRAM may be preferred over TCAM because SRAM is less expensive, more power efficient, and exhibits higher densities than TCAM.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.